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(I got less that six hours of sleep last night and feeling the need to sleep now. Trying to put it off for an hour or two. . . .)

I don’t think the men in black could convince me that this surveillance is worthwhile. Of course, there is money being made, and that is part of it. But the bigger part of it is that these guys, politicians of the right and the left, are terrified of another 9/11 on their watch. Shred the Constitution? Sure!

Even if Congress tried to stop abuse, which they wouldn’t, they would be overridden by the unitary executive because national security. Let’s face it, at this point the NSA/CIA/DIA has enough to blackmail just about anyone with something to lose to do anything. So, I figure the surveillance state is pretty much baked in. That a 3 month employee could have access to this crap, take it, not be detected until he revealed himself leaves me feeling secure that no rogue employee would ever go stalk an ex gf with this data or anything.

There is at least one implementation under which I would have less concern, and that would be that *everyone’s* information, all of it, on everybody, is publicly accessible and everyone is in the same boat. Where you live, what you get paid, what your boss gets paid, all of your email, all of your phone records, all of your credit card records. Everything. If there’s any such thing as a level playing field that is as close as I can imagine coming to it.

Total Public Awareness night solve a lot of societal problems – like when people see what the markup really is on that item or how many kids died to produce it they might make different choices. But again, like Single Payer it won’t really work unless everyone is in it with equal access. And the 1%ers might have to go Galt. Did anyone here ever read The Falcon and the Snowman? Similar kind of story, 40 years ago about a couple kids discovering that the national security apparatus was completely nuts. The one guy is in jail still. Don’t remember what happened to his friend.

There are lots of companies that develop “products” from the basic intelligence infrastructure. The comments about the PRISM slideshow appearing to be a pitch are probably correct, but do not detract from the seriousness of the content.
It is actively encouraged to have separate groups work the same data, to then compare conclusions. Which opens up the field to a lot of contractors, in a surging growth area. The salaries are high, because the contracts are in the stratosphere, and the trained talent is playing hard to get.

The whole thing is a huge drain on the nation’s resources, and probably won’t protect us from the next big threat, because they tend to be myopic. Now they are aiming at Iran, and NK. Back in the 80s they gloriously missed what Gorbachov was up to and its consequences, because they all needed the Soviet Union to keep ticking, as fighting the Russkies was paying for them all.

They’ll screw up in similar fashion this time, and probably because they have deluded themselves into thinking they can follow,everything to be sure, there is money to be made off totalitarianism (let’s call it what it is). And people are making money off it and will want to continue making money off of it. But i don’t think that explains it, at least not completely. I think the risk to Ghoulgle & Fadedbook would outweigh the value of money they made — if they made money at all. And of course we all know the person whom Snowden “revealed” himself too was Glenn Greenwald, yes? But, you know – boring!

And a few words about Hong Kong where our hero is hiding awaiting his fate, or is he gone? Why Hong Kong might be a good choice? I guess I agree if this guy has defection to China as a backup plan. If he does, then I think my respect for him goes down a notch. Can’t really put in words why, but it somehow does… Maybe it’s because one is wondering why the hell someone who’s upset over “totalitarian” spying on civilians might want to live in the PRC of all places. Yeah, I think that’s part of it. Also, if he really wants to be a hero (I don’t know if he does) then he should face the consequences in the US and let public opinion decide whether he is a hero and free him if that is the consensus. He might face the death penalty no? I won’t ask that of him. I’m kind of assuming that’s off the table or can be gotten off the table. Maybe I’m wrong. I’m with noblejoanie, who is noblejoanie for good reason. He would have to have a pretty thick skin to go to china and why would they offer? Yeah. I don’t think China would want to touch him. He probably isn’t valuable enough to them for the bad biz they would get for it.

Slightly different circumstances

I probably don’t know enough about either. But yeah, if you don’t think you can move the needle, don’t go public. Hide. He doesn’t seem to be seeking hero or martyr status, just an honorable man who won’t make Greenwald take the fall for him. This guy is what Democracy looks like. It pains me to think of what his family is giving up, what he is giving up. I admire Efward Snowden for leaking the information. I doubt very much if I could do what he did – and what he did really is important for everyone. But the reality is that he has stepped on some very big and very sore toes and revenge will be sought I am afraid.

Maybe as someone who works in the private sector in N. Va. I take it slightly too personally, but this sentiment strikes me as no better than right-wing hating on government employees. How the government splits up the work between federal employees and contractors isn’t up to anybody at the working level. Nobody is virtuous or a villain because of which organization cuts their paycheck. The work is largely similar and people go where the jobs are.

Defense spending vs. domestic spending

I can argue about policy without venting bile on an entire class of people who, right or wrong, believe in the value of their work. As most people do. This ain’t Wall Street, you realize. Worker bees in this field can have comfortable existences, but don’t get rich. Singling out a chunk of the middle class as “grifters” because you don’t like the current composition of government spending strikes me as aiming at the wrong target.

Would the same happen after another attack? Would Republicans fall in line behind Obama as Democrats did for Bush? The program was theoretically useful, as long as terrorists were not aware of it and tended to yak away on their phones. Were the really dangerous terrorists really so naive as to think there was no surveillance? Anyway this surveillance will now catch only the really dumb terrorists (and not lone wolves). // To finish this analyze, I’d been working a three long days in a row. In Yakutia, we’re very interested to clarify what’s going on in the world to worth to comment on eyakutia.com as I said. More at albertnikanorov.org